16 Nov Press release: Inspiring leaders in Bangkok to join hundreds of women worldwide to invest in the next generation of rising female leaders

Mentors, Mentees and the Wedu team at the Global Mentoring Walk Bangkok 2013

November 16, 2013 – Today 20 young women, and 10 successful leaders in Thailand joined together at 2B Café at Emporium Mall in Bangkok for the Global Mentoring Walk, hosted by Wedu in partnership with Vital Voices. Established leaders were matched with young professionals to serve as mentors, offering career advice, support, and guidance. As they walked through the creative space of the venue, they demonstrated the power of coming together with young women to shape the future of their communities. Each year, the Global Mentoring Walk is held globally by organizations such as Wedu to invest in the next generation of female leaders. The Global Mentoring Walk underscores the value of women’s leadership and exemplifies the transformative impact women have when they join together to promote positive change throughout the world. Each walk is tailored to fit the particular needs of each locale but builds on the success of mentoring walks hosted the past four years across Eurasia, Latin America, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. It is Bangkok’s first year participating in the Mentoring Walk. Organized by Wedu, a multi-award winning social enterprise which provides inspiring mentorship and innovative financing for young women in South East Asia to complete university. For the walk, successful men and women from Thailand came together with young Asian women, mostly Thai, to participate in this extraordinary mentoring opportunity. Opening remarks were made by featured speakers, Dr. Sirikorn Maneerin (Former Deputy Minister of Education and Public Health), Ms. Roberta Clarke (Regional Director of UN Women for Asia Pacific), and Ms. Ly Kok (CEO, Standard Chartered Bank Thailand) about their personal journeys as leaders and the importance of mentorship. Other mentors include: • Ms. Sinee Chakthranot – Head of Ashoka Thailand • Mr. Bi Ariya Banomyong – Country Director at Google Thailand • Ms. Kim Chongsathitwattan – Assistant Managing Director at Nanmee Books Publishing • Ms. Pimpan Disakul – Director of Knowledge and Learning Centre at Doitung Mae Fah Luang • Ms. Waan Snidvongs – Director, ChangAi Children’s Project • Ms. Nuntawan Vichit-Vadakan – Former Dean School of Global Studies at Thammasat University • Ms. Nasha Jungkankul – Founder, Kunna

“The Global Mentoring Walk is a unique opportunity to highlight the importance of women’s leadership, and to accelerate the impact of women leaders through mentoring,” said Mario Ferro, Co-founder and CEO of Wedu. Wedu recognizes that mentoring is critical to empower women to succeed and for advancing women’s leadership for the future.

THE POWER OF MENTORING Mentoring enables established women leaders to inspire, encourage and help others tackle the challenges in their professional and personal growth, by building confidence, teaching competences accessing networks, Women who have gone before and succeeded are in a unique position to guide and facilitate others to successfully navigate through similar obstacles in their career paths. Men also need to be part of empowering women leaders by providing support and critical networks for success. Mario Ferro said, “Wedu unlocks the potential of young emerging leaders through the power of mentorship combined with financial assistance for higher education. We believe that where you come from, or your gender should not hamper your chances of success. Our commitment is to reverse the lottery of birth.” Unlocking the potential of women is critical for economic development of every nation especially emerging ones like Thailand. Mario Ferro shared a quote from one of his own mentors “We cannot all fully prosper, if half of us are hold down.” Catalyst’s report “High Potentials in the Pipeline: Leaders Pay it Forward,” demonstrates just that – 65% of women who had been mentored were paying it forward (Dinolfo, Silva, Carter). Mentoring strengthens a mentee’s motivation and capacity for meeting challenges, exploring new ideas, and making important decisions. It enables emerging women leaders to gain confidence and skills to thrive as leaders. Leadership development and mentoring programmes are the foundation of Wedu’s work, which currently supports the development of 16 inspiring leaders from Myanmar, Cambodia and Nepal.

Wedu Wedu is a multi-award winning social enterprise based in Bangkok, pioneering the applications of mentorship for leadership development in South East Asia. We focus on women as it yields higher developmental impact that leads to large scale social change. We envision a world where people from the most underprivileged backgrounds have the tools to change their lives and the society of their home country by being masters of their own development. Our mission is to unlock the leadership potential of young women in developing countries into local leaders by providing inspiring mentorship and innovative financing for them to complete university.

Vital Voices Global Partnership Vital Voices Global Partnership is the leading non-governmental organization (NGO) that identifies, invests in and brings visibility to extraordinary women around the world by unleashing their leadership potential to transform lives and accelerate peace and prosperity in their communities. Its international staff and team of over 1,000 partners, pro bono experts and leaders, including senior government, corporate and NGO executives, have trained and mentored more than 14,000 emerging women leaders from over 144 countries in Asia, Africa, Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East since 1997. These women have in turn trained and mentored more than 500,000 additional women and girls in their communities.